The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows | Old Time Radio

Lux Radio Theatre presents “Dark Victory,” episode 245, originally broadcast on CBS on January 8, 1940. Produced by Cecil B. DeMille and sponsored by Lux Flakes, this 60-minute adaptation revisits the 1939 Warner Bros. film.

Bette Davis reprises her role as spirited Long Island socialite Judith Treherne, opposite Spencer Tracy as the eminent Dr. Frederick Steele. When troubling symptoms disrupt Judith’s reckless, privileged life, doctor and patient are drawn into a powerful drama of illness, love, courage, and an uncertain future. Lurene Tuttle co-stars as Ann King.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:53 Original Broadcast
01:00:21 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Escape presents “The Time Machine - Jeff Corey,” originally broadcast on May 9, 1948. Episode 40 adapts H. G. Wells’s classic novel, with Jeff Corey as inventor Dr. Dudley and Erik Rolf as his skeptical friend, Fowler.

Dudley invites Fowler to test an extraordinary machine capable of traveling through time. Their experiment carries them to the year 100,080, where a beautiful garden world and its seemingly gentle people hold unsettling mysteries. Irving Ravetch adapted the story for radio, in a production directed by Norman Macdonnell.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:47 Original Broadcast
30:17 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Suspense presents “Dead Ernest,” episode 205, originally broadcast on CBS on August 8, 1946. Written by Merwin Gerard and Seeleg Lester and produced and directed by Bill Spier, the drama stars Wally Maher, with Junius Matthews, Robert Bailey, Cathy Lewis, and Verna Felton among the supporting cast.

Ernest Bowers is vulnerable to cataleptic spells that can leave him appearing dead. After a street accident, the safeguards that could explain his condition are separated from him, setting off a tense race through police, hospital, and morgue procedures. Roma Wines sponsored this original production.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:52 Original Broadcast
30:50 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Dragnet presents “The Big Switch,” episode 230, originally broadcast on NBC on January 12, 1954. Jack Webb stars as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday, with Ben Alexander as Officer Frank Smith.

When Mona Fenton is found unconscious in a low-cost Los Angeles hotel room with the gas turned on, Friday and Smith investigate what may be more than an attempted suicide. Their Homicide Detail inquiry follows the hotel registration and the unidentified man connected with the room. The original broadcast was sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:52 Original Broadcast
29:54 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Gunsmoke, “The Trial,” originally broadcast March 22, 1959 (episode number variously listed as 361 or 363), stars William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon. This CBS Radio drama was written by John Meston and directed by Norman Macdonnell.

After Dillon encounters hungry drifter Homer Tisdale over a minor theft, Tisdale is accused of a deadly stage-office robbery. As a circuit judge convenes court in Dodge City, the marshal takes a hard look at a case that may not be as straightforward as the testimony suggests. Parley Baer, Howard McNear, and Georgia Ellis co-star as Chester, Doc Adams, and Kitty.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:41 Original Broadcast
24:12 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Inner Sanctum Mysteries presents “Twice Dead,” originally broadcast on November 6, 1950. This 28-minute ABC installment was the ninth episode of the 1950 Mars Candy Bars-sponsored run, hosted by Paul McGrath and produced and directed by Himan Brown.

At Maine’s forbidding Cathedrals Rock, David Morgan’s wife has died in a fall from the cliffs—but troubling signs soon suggest that the nightmare may not be over. As a box containing $100,000 vanishes, the Morgan household becomes the setting for a tense, shadowy mystery. The cast includes Larry Haines, Amzie Strickland, and Santos Ortega.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:49 Original Broadcast
30:24 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lux Radio Theatre presents “Killer Cates,” episode 550, originally broadcast on CBS on December 16, 1946. Sponsored by Lux and hosted by William Keighley, this production stars Jack Benny in a dramatic change of pace, with Gail Patrick and Alan Reed.

Benny plays Jeff Morley, a comedian worn down by three years as the lethal gangster Killer Cates in the hit stage melodrama The Man Who Couldn’t Be Killed. As the role begins to spill over into his private life, concern mounts among his wife, manager, and doctor in a blend of show-business comedy, psychological tension, and gangster-style suspense. Directed by Sanford Barnett and adapted from a Warner Bros. screenplay.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:51 Original Broadcast
59:46 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Dimension X presents “And the Moon Be Still as Bright,” episode 26, originally broadcast on NBC on September 29, 1950. This sustaining, commercial-free drama adapts Ray Bradbury’s story from The Martian Chronicles, with a radio script by Ernest Kinoy. Alexander Scourby stars as Spender, alongside Wendell Holmes as Captain Wilder.

Earth’s fourth expedition reaches Mars after three earlier missions have disappeared. Amid silent Martian cities and an intact artistic legacy, the explorers confront the unsettling beauty of an apparently deserted world—and the difficult questions raised by humanity’s arrival.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
01:01 Original Broadcast
30:41 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Suspense presents “Dateline - Lisbon,” originally broadcast on CBS on October 5, 1944. Episode 112 stars John Hodiak as American correspondent William Baldwin and was written by Harold Medford, with William Spier directing and producing.

In wartime Lisbon, a neutral crossroads crowded with spies and travelers, Baldwin finds himself on trial for murder. Through a courtroom flashback, he recounts a mysterious photograph, a young woman named Teri Moore, and the unnerving interest of a Nazi general in what the camera may have captured. The tense drama unfolds against the shadowy atmosphere of World War II-era Portugal.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned and mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:51 Original Broadcast
30:59 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Escape presents “Border Town,” episode 89, originally broadcast on CBS on December 13, 1949. This compact crime-adventure stars Jack Webb, with William Conrad and Jeanette Nolan, and was written by John and Gwen Bagni.

An actor riding a bus toward Hollywood discovers that counterfeit money has been planted in his coat. Trying to rid himself of the dangerous burden leads him from outside Dallas to a Mexican border town, where a simple errand becomes a tense criminal adventure. William N. Robson produced and directed.

The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:43 Original Broadcast
30:13 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-50-greatest-old-time-radio-shows-old-time-radio--7218119/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio